Allons enfants! We are loud, we are many, and the world will hear us in Hamburg at the G20 Protests! #NoG20 NEWSLETTER FOR INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS June 2017 *** A final info sheet with all numbers and contacts updated will be circulated a few days before the protests. So please stay tuned via the channels provided in this Newsletter *** http://g20-protest.info/; contact: [email protected] Dear international friends and comrades, In only three weeks we come together in Hamburg from across Europe and the world to protest against the G20´s spectacle of power. Just three weeks until we fill the streets and squares of Hamburg to show that another world is necessary; that it is possible starting with our solidarity on the streets; and until we reject the exploitation, social precarity, wars, ecological devastation and social division that the world’s 20 most powerful leaders and their delegations will organize. This parade of monsters should decide our future? No, they don’t represent us. It is not just the Trumps and Erdogans, the Temers and Putins, the Modis and Zumas, the Merkels, Mays, Junkers and Macrons. No, the monster is a “system”. A system based on the exploitation and systematic appropriation of work, wealth and land of the many by a few - in its neoliberal form represented by Merkel, Macron and the EU’s transnational elites, and in its nationalist reactionary form represented by the authoritarian, racist and sexist Trump, Erdogan and King Salman. They are two sides of the same coin. What is at stake in Hamburg is nothing less than the future of our Planet Earth. We already know that their negotiations will not solve any of the current and upcoming wars and military conflicts, will not stop the devastation of the continents, and will not help any of the millions fleeing from war or poverty or those who face impoverishment in the richest economies (see http://g20- protest.info/category/calls/english/). We know that many of you are planning to come to Hamburg. Others might not make it, but want to follow the news, organize solidarity actions and disseminate information. This is why we’ve compiled as much information as possible in an international newsletter to give you a good overview. However, please be aware that things may change quickly: to stay updated follow us online (see 5 below). In this newsletter: 1. Overview of the political situation in Hamburg: a compact week of protests against their summit 2. The planned activities: what is planned when, where to go, what to expect, how to participate and where to get more information 3. Logistical matters: accommodation, travel info, bus coordination and where to get information. 4. Legal help and police matters: what you need to know in case of repression, important numbers and helpful information. 5. How to stay tuned for updates and support us: where to find last-minute information and support the activists. 1 Who we are: The NoG20 International working group is part of the global preparation for the protests against the G20 summit in Hamburg and is composed of different groups and initiatives from Europe and around the world. We want to establish a framework in which we encourage people from all over the world to join the protests in Hamburg. We see our task in providing and sharing information about the mobilization, but we also want to use this platform to develop common discussions on G20 issues. We come from different traditions and political backgrounds; we don’t have a common ideology and don’t focus on any individual event of the protest week in Hamburg. We share a common consciousness that we have to work and struggle together to overcome global capitalism and we will achieve this only on a global scale. 1. Overview of the political situation in Hamburg: a compact week against their summit. On Dec. 1 2016, the German government took over the presidency of the G20, with many G20 ministerial meetings along the way and the G20 summit itself taking place on July 7 and 8 in Hamburg city centre. It is not only the overall politics of the G20, but also the current representatives of the G20 who will come to Ham- burg which need to be criticized, confronted and protested against. Therefore, several initiatives, political groups and representatives of civil society formed a G20 platform and started to organize and coordinate pro- tests with the idea of forming a broad alliance, a transnational convergence of the many under the motto “Soli- darity beyond borders” against the G20 and against its global organization of power A variety of activities have already taken place in Hamburg and around the G20 ministerial meetings (not to forget the massive protests in Brazil and Argentina these days, both part of the G20). But in Germany for example, in March when the G20 finance ministers met in Baden-Baden; or last week in Berlin, when hun- dreds of protesters led by anti-racist and refugees groups opposed the Merkel/Schäuble “G20 Compact with Africa,” partly because it will become a feast for multinational corporate privatization at the expense of tax- payer subsidies, partly because the “Africa Partnership Conference” was also clearly about how to secure bet- ter the borders of Europe. Other protests will take place in the week before the summit itself (e.g. on July 2 with a “wave of protest” going through Hamburg: see www.protestwelle.de). However, the G20 platform encouraged all groups and networks to organize protest activities against the G20 in a “compact week“ of debate, direct action and a demonstration that gives a picture of how many and how diverse we are. The aim of this compact week is to be in the Hamburg city centre, when “they” are there, to have our protests and critique heard and seen, and to practically link different forms of action and critique. Of course, such an approach of solidarity, connection and convergence is usually not welcomed by those in power – especially not by the city government of Hamburg. Often we meet bitter opposition to our rights to struggle, to assemble and to protest, from the police or the state. Activists are criminalized and presented as vandals, legal orders are issued restricting the freedom of assembly and movement, a discourse that prioritises “security issues” and fear above the question of democracy and free speech is launched. In Hamburg, we now see a red-green government delaying talks on / negotiations for public camps for activ- ists. We see a red-green government issuing a broad legal order that declares Hamburg on July 7 and 8 specifi- cally to be a democracy-free zone, outlawing any assembly, movement or camp for July 7 and 8 in an area covering almost all of Hamburg city centre and around (see here for a map). Importantly, the demonstration on Saturday is legally registered and will take place! There is now a public outcry against repression in Hamburg. Reaching beyond those who are active in the No G20 protests, a “campaign for the right to assembly” has formed and will publish a call for support. Church members will call for “round tables” and public debates, and more will hopefully follow soon. Furthermore, we will of course fight this order through the courts. We will go to court to support each assembly and demon- stration that might be affected. Besides, we are building as broad alliances as possible – with all those who don’t accept living in a city that outlaws democracy. And we claim that the right to assemble and the freedom of movement are best preserved when practiced on the streets of Hamburg by as many people as possible. In 2017 the Bastille stands in Hamburg! Let us be many, let us be loud, let us send a strong and visible sign across the world that we reject the G20 and the politics they represent and practice. Let us demonstrate that another world is necessary, and indeed, is possible and that we are already building it (for the international call to join the protests in Hamburg see http://g20-protest.info/). 2 We are saying that they don’t represent us – not in Hamburg nor in Africa, the Middle East or Asia, the Amer- icas or elsewhere in Europe and the world (http://g20-protest.info/category/general-information/open- letter-to-hamburg/). We will fight these orders and this discourse through legal processes, by public inter- ventions, and by building broad alliances with movements, civil society, organizations and NGOs, so that tens of thousands of people will be in Hamburg in early July: at the alternative summit, the camps, the transna- tional demonstration, the mass blockade, the numerous civil disobedience actions as well as many other initia- tives and happenings. We will meet, discuss, and practice our vision of a world of freedom, equality and soli- darity! So now, please take some time to look at the variety of activities planned so far. We will be on the streets, we will find accommodation for all of us, we will be together and we will say loudly: Solidarity beyond borders instead of the G20! 2. The protest week in detail: the main activities planned so far The social centre collectives are gathering all information on all activities and will publish a map and a reader for all of us to use. See also: Links for general overview: http://g20-protest.info/category/week-of-protest/ or https://www.g20hamburg.org/en Links to maps: protest map (http://g20-protest.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/G20-city-protest-map.jpg) map of the blue zone (http://g20-protest.info/category/material/) Wednesday, July 5th 10:00-21:30 - Global Solidarity Summit (Day 1) More than 50 initiatives and organizations from Germany and abroad are inviting people for the international “Global Solidarity Summit“.